GBP Chapter 1074, "The Envoy of Clavijo to the East," - My Father's Deepest Feelings
Chapter 1074, "The Envoy of Clavijo to the East," - My Father's Deepest Feelings
The officials from the Court of State Ceremonial received their orders and left, but Zhu Biao looked at Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Brother-in-law, are you planning to put the envoys of the Timurid Khanate on the back burner first?"
Yang Shaofeng smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's not about ignoring them, it's about scaring them."
Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment, then asked excitedly, "How does brother-in-law plan to scare them?"
Yang Shaofeng pointed south to the direction outside Nanjing, chuckled, and said meaningfully, "I once heard a gentleman say that truth lies only within the range of cannons."
"The Timurid Khanate was quite powerful, possessing military equipment such as swords and cannons."
“To scare them, simple military drills are meaningless.”
Pay attention.
The Timurid Khanate was by no means a weakling that could be easily manipulated.
The Ottoman Empire, often referred to as the nightmare of Europe and Byzantium, was nearly destroyed by the Timurid Khanate. In his account of his mission to the East, the Spanish envoy Clavijo boasted that Timur had treated him very well and adopted him as his son. He implied that the Timurid Khanate was powerful, and that he, as Timur's adopted son, was also powerful.
The "Klavier's Journey to the East" also records that the Ming emperor sent someone to question Timur the Lame, "Why did you delay the tribute for seven years?" and demanded that Timur make up for the missed tribute.
Of course, the contents recorded in "Klavier's Mission to the East" are not as the marketing accounts claim, portraying the Ming envoys as arrogant and the lame Timur as humble.
According to the original Spanish account of Clavieo's envoy to the East, Timur the Lame said to the Ming envoy, "It is indeed true. We are willing to pay, but we will not hand it over to you, for fear it will be intercepted en route. I would rather deliver it to the Emperor myself."
Klavie also specifically stated in the book that "this statement was actually a mockery, because he had no intention of paying tribute. In fact, he had not paid this tribute for nearly eight years, and the Khitan emperor had never asked for it before."
Let me emphasize this again.
The accounts in "Klavier's Mission to the East" concerning Timur the Lame and the Ming Dynasty are largely based on Klavier's own imagination.
To put it more bluntly, this guy Clavijo understands neither military nor political matters.
The part praising Timur the Lame can be basically determined to be a forced praise in order to enhance his status as a "godson".
In fact, Lame Timur sent envoys to pay tribute to the emperor multiple times over a period of more than ten years.
The first tribute consisted of fifteen horses and two camels.
The second tribute consisted of two hundred horses and a humble tribute document.
The largest number of horses presented as tribute at one time was as many as a thousand.
Timur the Lame stopped paying tribute after Zhu Yuanzhang launched the "Jingnan Rebellion"—your Great Ming is in chaos, why should I pay tribute?
At the end of the second year of the Yongle reign, Timur, who had already defeated the Ottomans, felt confident that he was in power again. In addition, the Ming Dynasty had also experienced the "Jingnan Campaign". Timur believed that the Ming Dynasty was in a period of weakness at this time, so he prepared to launch an eastern expedition against the Ming Dynasty.
Then, Timur the Lame died of illness at the beginning of the third year of Yongle's reign due to various reasons, such as "being too old and unable to withstand the cold".
During this process, Timur set out on November 27th of the second year of the Yongle reign, and then camped on the banks of the Syr Darya River for fifty days, which means he was delayed until January 17th of the third year of the Yongle reign, and then died on February 18th of the third year of the Yongle reign.
Interestingly, after Emperor Zhu died, he passed the throne to his grandson, and the same was true for Timur the Lame.
Old Deng's grandson was beaten by his uncle, and Lame Timur's grandson was also beaten by his uncle.
The uncle who beat up Lao Deng's grandson was ranked fourth, and the uncle who beat up Timur's grandson was also ranked fourth.
Then, Zhu Laosi shamelessly wrote a letter to Shah Rukh, saying, "I am deeply saddened to hear that you are at war with your nephew. Families should love and help each other. I hope you can cease hostilities and share peace."
Shahru thought to himself, "If you, Zhu Laosi, can do the first day of the month, why can't I, Tie Laosi, do the fifteenth?"
So Shah Rukh replied, "You also usurped your nephew's throne, what right do you have to laugh at me?"
Of course, making a few boastful remarks was just talk; in reality, Shah Rukh sent envoys to the Ming Dynasty to present a precious horse, and it was a horse he personally rode.
In short, talking big shouldn't interfere with paying tribute.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang, the fourth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, would not launch a military expedition just because of Shah Rukh's casual remarks. The Ming Dynasty was too far from Timur's Khanate, and he could not let Shah Rukh's few words delay his efforts to make money, let alone delay his own mission to smash Arughtai's windows. "You wait until I've smashed Arughtai's windows, then you'll see if I don't smash yours!"
Unfortunately, Zhu Laosi spent his whole life smashing windows on the grassland but never managed to completely clear them, and he never got to see the day when he could smash the windows of Shahru's house.
While Yang Shaofeng was pondering whether the title "Fourth Prince" had any significance, he said with a smile, "Since Timur claims to be the successor of the Chagatai Khanate, let them first see the heavy cavalry of the Crown Prince's Palace and the Prince Consort's Mansion, and then see the elite Mongol cavalry under Krupp's command."
"Then, let them see the overwhelming artillery fire, let them witness what a 'Xu Jin barrage' truly means."
"First, scare off the envoy sent by Timur, and then have the Embroidered Uniform Guard go and have a heart-to-heart talk with him."
"At worst, we can give him a position as a commander of the Imperial Guard in Samarkand."
"..."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng smacked his lips again and said, "By the way, the Embroidered Uniform Guard needs to be split up, otherwise its functions and organization will become more and more chaotic."
The functions currently performed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard are somewhat absurd, even chaotic.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard, under Xia Yu's command, not only had the function of investigating officials and monitoring the entire country, but also had a portion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard remaining in the capital who were specifically responsible for the emperor's and crown prince's ceremonial guards, and even had to shovel elephant dung.
Yang Shaofeng's Zhenfu Division was in charge of disciplinary matters within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Its power was so great that it could bypass the Three Departments and directly arrest officials, torture them, or even execute them.
The organization of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was also extremely chaotic.
Including Zhili, each provincial administration commission had a Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) thousand-household unit.
The capital region was further divided into five departments, each with ten sub-departments: Imperial Chair, Fan Hand, Canopy Holder, Banner and Banner, Axe and Halberd, Imperial Carriage, Horse Tamer, Swordsman, Spear and Halberd, and Bow and Arrow.
And this doesn't even include the Korean Thousand Household Office, the Korean Thousand Household Office, the Siamese Thousand Household Office, the Annam Thousand Household Office, and a whole host of other thousand households specifically responsible for investigating overseas crimes.
Simply put, Lao Dengtu wanted to save trouble, so he stuffed all sorts of random ideas into the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which ultimately led to chaos in the Embroidered Uniform Guard's functions and organization.